| Many experiments show that hirudin acts by inhibiting the blood protein thrombin. Thrombin is responsible for converting fibrinogen into fibrin blood clots. |
| Researchers have been able to isolate hirudin to study how it prevents blood from clotting. |
| As they do so, their salivary glands secrete hirudin, an anticoagulant so effective that the pharmaceutical industry synthesises it as a blood-thinning agent. |
| For example, doctors use hirudin, a substance discovered in the saliva of leeches, to dissolve dangerous blood clots. |
| Feeding is facilitated by the secretion of hirudin. |
| By conjugating this tetrapeptide or variants thereof to a C-terminal fragment of hirudin, we were able to generate a series of new multivalent inhibitors of thrombin containing only genetically encodable natural amino acids. |
